Easy Meal Planning for Busy People: What You Need to Know
If you want to eat better, one option is to get better with your meal planning. Especially if you have a busy schedule, this can help you make healthier decisions.
A survey showed that 80% of people found food information confusing regarding healthy options. Another 59% said this made them doubt their dietary decisions.
Many people rely too much on unhealthy and processed foods. These foods may be convenient but are not good choices for better health.
Keep reading to find out how to start easy meal planning every week.
Create a Meal Day
If you are honest with yourself, you probably make unhealthy dietary decisions weekly. This is very common as most people have a hectic schedule.Eating out or eating processed foods is a simpler option that is accessible. This is especially true if you need more time to cook healthy meals at home.
The reality is that everyone has time to cook if they make time. You don't have to cook every day if you learn how to meal prep.
The first thing you need to do is find a day where you can prepare your meals. Many people do this on a Sunday before their week officially begins.
Or you can fit us into a Monday or Tuesday afternoon, depending on your schedule. This allows you to set yourself up to make healthier decisions throughout the week.
Plan Out Your Meals
After picking a meal day, start the other steps. Healthy eating begins with organizing what you are going to eat.
A lot of people need help to do this, leaving themselves in a vulnerable position. After working all day, the last thing you want to do is figure out what to eat for dinner.
There are a lot of meal plans available online for you to use. These plans are perfect if you are trying to lose weight or have dietary restrictions.
But plenty of meal plans are designed to help you eat better. This makes planning healthy meals more accessible and faster with minimal decision-making.
You could look around and find healthy recipes you want to create. There are plenty of beginner-friendly recipes that anyone could cook.
Make One Grocery Shopping Trip
Planning your meals makes buying ingredients so much easier. You will know exactly what you need so you don't end up overspending.
After finding healthy meals, create a shopping list and head to the market. You could do this all in one day or spread it out, depending on the time you have.
A meal plan allows you to make one weekly shopping trip. This helps you avoid overspending and giving in to unhealthy options.
Cook Meals In Advance
A big part of easy meal planning is getting ahead of the week. You do this by cooking the meals in advance so that they are ready to go.
This makes ready-to-eat meals that are healthy and homemade. You don't have to come home from work, cook something, or risk eating out.
You should create three Whole Foods meals for the week. You could focus on creating what you eat for dinner or breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It depends on your time and what you would enjoy eating. Some things are best enjoyed fresh and can't be made beforehand.
For instance, you don't want to make most salads too far in advance. But you could chop up the vegetables and have everything ready to assemble.
More Easy Meal Planning Tips
Eating healthier can feel like quite a challenge with so many tempting options. But this has made it much easier if you participate in meal planning.
Here are some extra tips to help you meal plan successfully for your week.
Plan Out Healthy Snacks
Aside from meals, there are other areas where you need to incorporate healthier options. For instance, a lot of people give in when it comes to snacks.
You can easily create healthy snacks to enjoy throughout the week. You could make homemade energy balls with oats, peanut butter, or protein bars.
You could also buy healthier snack options if you need more time for homemade options.
Stock Up on Easy Foods
Meal planning is helpful but isn't always foolproof. For instance, you may not want to meal plan for the entire week as the food starts to get old.
To make up for this, you could buy a few easy foods to make for later on in the week. There are plenty of healthy options that are convenient as well.Don't Encourage Temptation
If you are trying to eat healthier, there is a number one rule. That rule is that you need to avoid tempting yourself when it comes to unhealthy options.
Don't buy unhealthy foods When you go grocery shopping. Even if these are for your family, they are still tempting, and you may end up breaking your commitment.
Easy Meal Planning for Healthier Eating
If you want to eat healthier, there are several ways to do this. One way is to start meal planning to set yourself up for success.
Easy meal planning ensures you have healthy options throughout the week when you don't feel like cooking.
Are you interested in healthier living? Contact us today at SupplementRelief.com for products to help you on your health journey.
Jay Todtenbier is an original founder of SupplementRelief.com in 2010 and has operated the business ever since. He is also a tennis instructor and gospel musician. Formerly he spent 25 years in business development, technology and marketing with startups and major corporations having gone through the tech boom in Silicon Valley in the 90s. He became passionate about, and began studying and practicing Wellness as a Lifestyle after experiencing chronic, personal health challenges including depression, auto-immune disorders, and being overweight that impacted his ability to live a healthy, vibrant life. Since then, he has been an advocate for healthier living encouraging others to live better through making small, gradual changes to lifestyle behaviors relating to whole-foods nutrition, stress management, reasonable exercise, proper sleep, and the use of targeted, high-quality supplements.
Learn more about Jay Todtenbier.
Related Content
We encourage you to take advantage of these FREE Wellness Resources on our website.
A Stay at Home Wellness Guide: Eating Better
Many of us turn to comfort and convenience when our routines get disrupted and when we get stressed. This is particularly true regarding our food choices. Nobody is perfect but there are some simple and practical things we can do to eat better no matter our current circumstances.
Affordable Healthy Grocery Shopping in 30 Minutes
Ever wonder what a healthy grocery list would look like? One of the things many people tell us is that it seems too hard to change shopping habits. They feel eating healthy is harder or costlier. I can tell you shopping for whole, natural foods is less expensive, easier and much faster in the grocery store than dealing with a bunch of processed foods.
For Better or Worse - Cooking Changes Food
Is healthy food still healthy AFTER you cook it? If you want to continue to improve your overall health and wellbeing OR you've been trying to improve a chronic health condition like diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, then you MUST know how food preparation (cooking) can positively or negatively impact your health.
Investigating Low Carb Diet Meal Plans: Are Carbs the Real Culprit?
Diets low in carbohydrates have become very faddy over the last few years. Whether it's keto diets or low carb diets, the marketing around this way of eating has been potent.
However, does cutting the carbs really help you with sustainable weight loss? Keep reading to learn more about low-carb diet meal plans.
Juicing Recipes: Targeting Health Benefits
Did you just get a juicer and are now looking for recipes and advice for what to put in your juice? You may be wondering what are the best fruits and vegetables for juicing. You may even want to include healthy superfoods! But what are they?
You have plenty of options at your fingertips. Read on to learn how to put together a juice that taste great and meets your health goals.
Pantry Panic
What do you do when your adorable kindergartner tells you it's snack day 10 minutes before school and you don't keep processed food around anymore? Panic, then...
Quick Healthy Snacks
Today I'd like to remind you that it's easy to do something healthy for yourself. Especially in the snacking department!
Sticking to Your New Meal Plan: Five Tips That Will Help You Eat Healthier for Life
Creating a meal plan is always an important step, but sticking to it is what really matters. You could spend many hours developing a health-enhancing meal plan only to fall back on old, bad eating habits within days or weeks.
The Prevalence of Chronic Disease
Everyone has likely heard of chronic diseases. But few people know just how prevalent they are. They have been on the rise for several generations and are seriously impacting our health, finances, and productivity.
-
Blog Post
A survey showed that 80% of people found food information confusing regarding healthy options. Another 59% said this made them doubt their dietary decisions.
Many people rely too much on unhealthy and processed foods. These foods may be convenient but are not good choices for better health.
Keep reading to find out how to start easy meal planning every week.
Create a Meal Day
If you are honest with yourself, you probably make unhealthy dietary decisions weekly. This is very common as most people have a hectic schedule.Eating out or eating processed foods is a simpler option that is accessible. This is especially true if you need more time to cook healthy meals at home.
The reality is that everyone has time to cook if they make time. You don't have to cook every day if you learn how to meal prep.
The first thing you need to do is find a day where you can prepare your meals. Many people do this on a Sunday before their week officially begins.
Or you can fit us into a Monday or Tuesday afternoon, depending on your schedule. This allows you to set yourself up to make healthier decisions throughout the week.
Plan Out Your Meals
After picking a meal day, start the other steps. Healthy eating begins with organizing what you are going to eat.
A lot of people need help to do this, leaving themselves in a vulnerable position. After working all day, the last thing you want to do is figure out what to eat for dinner.
There are a lot of meal plans available online for you to use. These plans are perfect if you are trying to lose weight or have dietary restrictions.
But plenty of meal plans are designed to help you eat better. This makes planning healthy meals more accessible and faster with minimal decision-making.
You could look around and find healthy recipes you want to create. There are plenty of beginner-friendly recipes that anyone could cook.
Make One Grocery Shopping Trip
Planning your meals makes buying ingredients so much easier. You will know exactly what you need so you don't end up overspending.
After finding healthy meals, create a shopping list and head to the market. You could do this all in one day or spread it out, depending on the time you have.
A meal plan allows you to make one weekly shopping trip. This helps you avoid overspending and giving in to unhealthy options.
Cook Meals In Advance
A big part of easy meal planning is getting ahead of the week. You do this by cooking the meals in advance so that they are ready to go.
This makes ready-to-eat meals that are healthy and homemade. You don't have to come home from work, cook something, or risk eating out.
You should create three Whole Foods meals for the week. You could focus on creating what you eat for dinner or breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It depends on your time and what you would enjoy eating. Some things are best enjoyed fresh and can't be made beforehand.
For instance, you don't want to make most salads too far in advance. But you could chop up the vegetables and have everything ready to assemble.
More Easy Meal Planning Tips
Eating healthier can feel like quite a challenge with so many tempting options. But this has made it much easier if you participate in meal planning.
Here are some extra tips to help you meal plan successfully for your week.
Plan Out Healthy Snacks
Aside from meals, there are other areas where you need to incorporate healthier options. For instance, a lot of people give in when it comes to snacks.
You can easily create healthy snacks to enjoy throughout the week. You could make homemade energy balls with oats, peanut butter, or protein bars.
You could also buy healthier snack options if you need more time for homemade options.
Stock Up on Easy Foods
Meal planning is helpful but isn't always foolproof. For instance, you may not want to meal plan for the entire week as the food starts to get old.
To make up for this, you could buy a few easy foods to make for later on in the week. There are plenty of healthy options that are convenient as well.Don't Encourage Temptation
If you are trying to eat healthier, there is a number one rule. That rule is that you need to avoid tempting yourself when it comes to unhealthy options.
Don't buy unhealthy foods When you go grocery shopping. Even if these are for your family, they are still tempting, and you may end up breaking your commitment.
Easy Meal Planning for Healthier Eating
If you want to eat healthier, there are several ways to do this. One way is to start meal planning to set yourself up for success.
Easy meal planning ensures you have healthy options throughout the week when you don't feel like cooking.
Are you interested in healthier living? Contact us today at SupplementRelief.com for products to help you on your health journey.
AuthorJay Todtenbier is an original founder of SupplementRelief.com in 2010 and has operated the business ever since. He is also a tennis instructor and gospel musician. Formerly he spent 25 years in business development, technology and marketing with startups and major corporations having gone through the tech boom in Silicon Valley in the 90s. He became passionate about, and began studying and practicing Wellness as a Lifestyle after experiencing chronic, personal health challenges including depression, auto-immune disorders, and being overweight that impacted his ability to live a healthy, vibrant life. Since then, he has been an advocate for healthier living encouraging others to live better through making small, gradual changes to lifestyle behaviors relating to whole-foods nutrition, stress management, reasonable exercise, proper sleep, and the use of targeted, high-quality supplements.
Learn more about Jay Todtenbier.
-
Related Content
Related Content
We encourage you to take advantage of these FREE Wellness Resources on our website.
A Stay at Home Wellness Guide: Eating Better
Many of us turn to comfort and convenience when our routines get disrupted and when we get stressed. This is particularly true regarding our food choices. Nobody is perfect but there are some simple and practical things we can do to eat better no matter our current circumstances.
Affordable Healthy Grocery Shopping in 30 Minutes
Ever wonder what a healthy grocery list would look like? One of the things many people tell us is that it seems too hard to change shopping habits. They feel eating healthy is harder or costlier. I can tell you shopping for whole, natural foods is less expensive, easier and much faster in the grocery store than dealing with a bunch of processed foods.
For Better or Worse - Cooking Changes Food
Is healthy food still healthy AFTER you cook it? If you want to continue to improve your overall health and wellbeing OR you've been trying to improve a chronic health condition like diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, then you MUST know how food preparation (cooking) can positively or negatively impact your health.
Investigating Low Carb Diet Meal Plans: Are Carbs the Real Culprit?
Diets low in carbohydrates have become very faddy over the last few years. Whether it's keto diets or low carb diets, the marketing around this way of eating has been potent.
However, does cutting the carbs really help you with sustainable weight loss? Keep reading to learn more about low-carb diet meal plans.
Juicing Recipes: Targeting Health Benefits
Did you just get a juicer and are now looking for recipes and advice for what to put in your juice? You may be wondering what are the best fruits and vegetables for juicing. You may even want to include healthy superfoods! But what are they?
You have plenty of options at your fingertips. Read on to learn how to put together a juice that taste great and meets your health goals.
Pantry Panic
What do you do when your adorable kindergartner tells you it's snack day 10 minutes before school and you don't keep processed food around anymore? Panic, then...
Quick Healthy Snacks
Today I'd like to remind you that it's easy to do something healthy for yourself. Especially in the snacking department!
Sticking to Your New Meal Plan: Five Tips That Will Help You Eat Healthier for Life
Creating a meal plan is always an important step, but sticking to it is what really matters. You could spend many hours developing a health-enhancing meal plan only to fall back on old, bad eating habits within days or weeks.
The Prevalence of Chronic Disease
Everyone has likely heard of chronic diseases. But few people know just how prevalent they are. They have been on the rise for several generations and are seriously impacting our health, finances, and productivity.
The information, knowledge, and experience shared on this website is the opinion of SupplementRelief.com. This site and its content is intended to enhance your knowledge base as YOU MAKE YOUR OWN HEALTHCARE DECISIONS in partnership with your qualified health professional. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any products referred to are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Comments are displayed in order of the last one posted so the most recent Comment is at the top and older Comments are towards the bottom. Replies within a Comment are displayed in reverse order with the oldest Reply at the top and the most recent one at the bottom.
Each post identifies who made the post and the date and time the post was made.
Mouse over the icons for tooltips that explain what the data means.
If you see this icon you can attach an Audio file to your post.
If you see this icon you can attach a Document file to your post.
If you see this icon you can attach an Image file to your post.
If you see this icon you can attach a Video file to your post.
You will see the Ban icon (Report Post as SPAM) immediately following the Timestamp of the post. Click this icon if you feel strongly that the content posted is not appropriate and should be reviewed by the Forum Moderator. You will be provided with a confirmation dialog to be sure you wish to submit this post for review. If submitted, the Forum Moderator will be notified to review the post and will determine what type of action to take.
Click in the upper right corner of this Help modal or anywhere on the web page outside of the modal to exit Help.
×
